Susannah Armstrong Coleman collection, 1912-1953

Biographical Note

Susannah Armstrong Coleman (1897-1985) was an American pianist, composer, and teacher. Born in Chicago, Coleman began her musical studies locally with Hilda Brown before earning a bachelor's degree at the Northwestern University School of Music in 1919. There she studied piano with Victor Garwood, Josef Lhevinne, and Arne Oldberg, the latter with whom she also studied composition. She continued her piano studies abroad with Artur Schnabel from 1924-1925. Between 1930 and 1946, Coleman composed extensively while in summer residence on fellowship at the MacDowell Colony in Peterboro, New Hampshire. She moved to New York in 1934 and married former Colony member Laurence Vail Coleman four years later. The couple spent the remainder of their lives in the Washington, D.C. and Charlottesville, Virginia, areas while also travelling extensively throughout Europe and the Carribean. Over the course of her lifetime, Susannah Coleman won prizes for numerous compositions, including awards from Mu Phi Epsilon for her Blue Symphony and Mother Goose Suite.